Lecture: 'On the Edge of Ruin: Drought as a Catalyst for Popular Reform'

This year the Division for Late Medieval and Reformation Studies’ Summer Lecture Series, "Holy Terror: Interpretation of Natural Disasters," being held in conjunction with St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, examines the interpretation of natural disasters.

Whenever a crisis occurred in late medieval and early modern Europe, even ordinary people expressed their view of the universe in explaining this extreme event. Their reactions give us a way of seeing into the mentalities of the populace at large and not simply of the learned. Floods and famines, epidemic disease, fires and earthquakes shook the lives of everyone when they struck. All looked to heaven and to human sin for explanations in a prescientific world.

On Sunday, Aug. 4, Cory Davis, M.A. student, will present the first lecture: "On the Edge of Ruin: Drought as a Catalyst for Popular Reform."

The series comprises four lectures presented on consecutive Sundays beginning on Aug. 4.